1. Field of Invention
This specification discloses improvements in acoustical and electrical stringed musical instruments (e.g., guitars).
2. Background
Musical instruments are used to produce sounds. Sound may be a mechanical wave transmitted through a compressible medium at a frequency within the range of hearing. A hearing-frequency vibrating wave may be produced in air via vibrating a surface. Accordingly, musical instruments have employed vibrating surfaces as a means for producing sound.
Stringed musical instruments utilize the vibrating surface of tautly suspended and plucked strings to produce sound. However, a vibrating string, by itself, may not be entirely satisfactory for producing music since: (a) the volume-level of sound resulting from a vibrating surface is generally dependant on the quantities of vibrating surface areas and the resultant wave's energy (larger vibrating surfaces and energies result in greater volume levels); (b) strings typically possess small surface areas and low wave energies; and (c) situations exist that require loud music. Accordingly, stringed musical instruments employ means for increasing vibrational surface areas and wave energies of strings so that louder sounds result.
To produce louder sound in a stringed musical instrument, the surface area of vibration of a string may be increased by mechanically coupling the string to a resonance plate or sound board. Said mechanical connection results in the sound board vibrating at the same frequency as the string. Guitars, for example, have strings that are coupled to a sound board via a bridge and saddle (one known guitar features two sound boards mechanically coupled to each other to increase the vibrating surface area (U.S. Pat. No. 7,473,831 (issued Jan. 6, 2009))). However, increasing the surface area of vibration of a string via a sound board(s), alone, is not entirely satisfactory for increasing sound volume in stringed instruments since the requisite mechanical connection correspondingly dampens the vibrational energy. For this reason, stringed musical instruments also employ means for increasing the vibrational energies of strings so that louder sounds result.
The vibrational energy of a plucked string mechanically coupled to a sound board and the energy of the resulting sound wave may be increased via resonance. To with, most stringed instruments feature a sound board that is coupled to a resonance chamber (e.g., a sound box). Operably, the resonance chamber of a stringed instrument receives a mechanical wave resulting from a vibrating string and continuously reflects the wave internally so that it is reinforced and amplified as the string continues to vibrate. As a result, the wave propagates an increased energy which correspondingly increases the sound volume of the instrument. Although useful for increasing the sound volume of a stringed instrument, a resonance chamber does not efficiently increase the volume of sound produced by a vibrating string since the sound wave to be resonated by the chamber is dampened during transmission from the string to the chamber. In view of said dampening transmission, there is a need for apparatus and methods that increase the efficiency of sound wave transmission from a vibrating string to a resonance chamber.
Some have attempted to meet the above identified need by affixing additional vibratable elements to the resonance plate and within the resonance chamber of the instrument. For example: U.S. Pat. No. 7,473,831 (issued Jan. 6, 2009) discloses a guitar with a second sound board within its resonance chamber; U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,685 (issued Mar. 23, 1982) discloses a guitar with a sloped sound board wherein the strings are coupled to a bridge on the topside of the sound board; and, U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,827 (issued Dec. 18, 1979) discloses a guitar with fins or vanes that extend from the underside of its sound board to within its sound box. These items may not be entirely satisfactory, however, for increasing the efficiency of sound wave transmission from a vibrating string to a resonance chamber because affixing additional vibratable elements to a resonance plate will correspondingly increase the dampening of sound producing vibrations. Thus, a need continues to exist for apparatus and methods for improved sound wave transmission from a vibrating string to a resonance chamber in a musical instrument.